Pastels
by Juusan
Summary: There was a power gained from being an artist. The power to create and the power to erase. This is the story of Naminé and her past.
1. Nightmares

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories

Pastels

By Juusan

_Summary_: There was a power gained from being an artist. The power to create and the power to erase. This is the story of Naminé and her past.

Juusan: Yay! This is my first story on I'm being uberly lazy on my fictionpress account. Yup, so read and review please! And now for complete randomness my little Malik plushie shall do the disclaimer.

Malik: Probably for the best, Juusan doesn't own Kingdom Hearts or pretty much anything else for that matter. She's a shopaholic and doesn't have any money right now.

bops Malik over the head with his own Millennium Rod

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**Chapter One: Nightmares**

Horrified cerulean eyes gazed upon the shadowed monster as it loomed above, eclipsing the sun. Every light in the sky began to fade away sending pitch blackness across the land. The blonde girl, who the eyes belonged to, screamed as she tried to run away as fast as her legs could carry her yet it was hopeless as the darkness surrounded the lush field. The girl pleas and begs the night for someone to find and save her from the heartless creature but only the wind's accusing howls replied. She brought this upon herself, she deserved her punishment, and she could not atone. The loneliness panged her heart as the sky dripped like wet paint and stained her pristine dress. She had been tainted by the hole in her heart.

Naminé screams as she awakes from her nightmare, the same horrid dream that has been plaguing her for the past two weeks. But nothing makes any sense because she didn't feel alone. After all Naminé has her family, her friends, and her paintings. Yes, her paintings mean the world to the little artist. Paintings could be created without the laws of physics or nature and could be made perfect with a touch of her brush. And then erasing something incorrect is also a power of art.

A soft knock on the door startles Naminé's thoughts as she wipes away the drying tears from her cheeks.

"Naminé? Can I come in?" At the sound of what seemed to be like a yes, a younger boy with dirty blonde hair and chocolate wide eyes enters shyly in his pajamas, He is about eight years old though he was small in size and seemed a bit younger. "Naminé, were you having a bad dream? 'Cause if you were you can sleep with Mr. Kiddles, I don't mind." The boy holds up his fuzzy black teddy bear, which is missing one of its verdant eyes, to his older sister. She gently smiles.

"That's okay Ain, I know how much Mr. Kiddles means to you. But I got a better idea." Naminé gets out of bed, puts on her slippers and sweater, grabs her messenger bag and takes her brother's hand as they playfully skip to the backdoor. The stars are always so bright in the dead of the night and with a full moon out tonight, the scene is perfect.

"Hey Naminé, I wanna paint you tonight! You and Mr. Kiddles 'cause you two are my bestest friends in the whole world." Ain giggles in his childish charm and rummages through his sister's bag and pulls out her notepad full of vivid color works. He flips to an empty page and pulls out the miniature paint set. "Okay, now…I know…dance with Mr. Kiddles." Naminé nods as she begins to waltz with the teddy bear under the moonlight, light and dark contrasting yet together. Ain quickly sketches with the markers, trying to look professional like his sister, creating something with the closest stick figure realism possible. "I'm done!" Naminé stops twirling about, a bit dizzy though, and runs over to Ain who is waving his drawing like a flag.

"Wow Ain, you becoming quite an artist. Let's go hang this up so Mama and Papa can see it when they come home." Naminé glances down at her little brother who yawns as the night begins to take its toll on the little boy. "You head back inside and go to sleep; I'll pick up the supplies. Goodnight Ain." Ain rubs his eyes and yawns again.

"Night Big sister." Naminé's brother could be such a sweetheart.

As she picks up the supplies a gust of wind blows the drawing out of Naminé's grasp and it begins to flutter into the deep forest. There had been many tales that told of strange creatures that inhabited these woods but Ain's picture.

"I can't be afraid." Naminé chases after the artwork as it heads deeper into the entangled trees and vines. The young girl feels a chill up her spine as owls ruffle their feathers glaring down at her with yellow eyes. Naminé clasps her small hands over her ears, trying to ignore the nominal accusations like the ones in her nightmares. She just had to go on a little longer. She had to get that picture back!

"What is this?" A tall wooden door boldly stands in her way and blocking the traveling paper from going any father into the forest. Naminé is soon interrupted by a voice coming from what seemed to be like nowhere.

"You have come back little one. It has been quite a while since I've last seen you." Naminé turns around and stares at a cloaked figure looming above her. Confused by his words she attempts talking to what she hoped was human.

"Come back? But I have never been here before." Though she couldn't see his face Naminé could sense the figure laughing at her.

"Oh really? Then why does it seem to feel so familiar? Maybe it could be that your mind may know the truth but it is your heart that has locked your memories?"

"My heart?" She places her hand over her heart gasping at her brother's drawing. Slowly, the colors were all blending into the center creating a giant black puddle in the shape of a twisted heart before disappearing altogether. Naminé gapes at the blank paper in disbelief. "Oh no! Ain's picture is gone."

"No, it isn't gone because it was never there in the beginning." With that, the cloaked figure disappears into the night.

* * *

Ain wakes up to a very stressed face in front of his.

"Ain, I'm sorry but I lost your painting." The younger boy looks up baffled by what his sister was talking about. He didn't remember any painting.

"Naminé? What painting?" Ain stares cutely while hugging Mr. Kiddles. Naminé backs away in awe as the bear stares at her with two shiny glass eyes. But she knew it only had one eye because a bird had pecked it out.

'This doesn't make any sense. I know I didn't dream all of it, did I?' Before she could respond to her own mind, her thoughts are distracted by a pleasant voice calling her name.

"Naminé, Ain, come down for breakfast before you go play with your friends." The motherly humming voice rings as Ain giggles and rushes out of his room with the bear.

"Coming Mama."

"Wait Ain, didn't Mama and Papa go on the trip to Fleiyt City? I thought they weren't coming home for another week." Once again Ain stares even more confused than usual.

"Big sister, don't…don't you remember? Papa never came home three years ago." The blonde's eyes widen as she covers her mouth with her hand to try and stop the nausea. This couldn't be happening. Nothing is making any sense! In a single night her entire life changed but unfortunately for Naminé, wasn't the end.

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Juusan: So…how was my first chapter?

Malik (who kinda sounds like Juusan now): It.was.great.Please.Review.

Juusan: hugs Malik happily accidentally dropping the Millennium Rod which frees Malik from the mind control

Malik: …strangles Juusan Ahem…Who was the mysterious robed man in the forest? Is Naminé really just crazy? Will Juusan ever finish KH: COM before she writes the next chapter? Find out this and more next time when Juusan stops procrastinating and updates.

Juusan: smiles though is dead now "Yay! You did the 'to be continued' narrator thing! Anyway, I'll add some Final Fantasy characters as Naminé's friends next chapter since I don't want this story to seem totally creepy and boring. Open to suggestions so yeah…Byes.


	2. Searching for the Nonexistence

**Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories**

**Pastels**

**By Juusan**

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Juusan: Yay! I got reviews and they're good ones! I'm so uber sorry it has been two whole weeks for this chapter but school is being totally mean to me, so to make it up I'll try to get another chapter done by Wednesday maybe.

Mokuba: (he's my new plushie now) and on some more good news, Juusan finally beat Chain of Memories, which no matter how much she wishes, won't belong to her ever. Though Seto could probably buy it out…

Juusan: Heh, time for Chapter Two! With Final Fantasy Characters!

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**Chapter Two: Searching for the Nonexistence**

Just walking down the wooden stairs, Naminé could sense and fear just how different things would be today. Pictures hang on the walls with their pearly seashell frames but the moments captured by the camera just aren't registering. Photos of Naminé doing activities she could have sworn she did with her father were replaced by her mother. But one drawing, supposedly by her, catches the blonde's attention. A large yet twisted castle with the same door as the one in the woods seems to beckon her toward it. Even though the castle itself is definitely frightening, Naminé found some comfort in familiarity.

At the breakfast table, the girl can't help but be lost in thought. This, of course, worries her mother who proceeds with checking her daughter's temperature.

"Honey, are you feeling all right? You've hardly touched your French toast." Naminé shakes her head and forces a smile. How could she explain to her mother that she seems to have wakened up in a different world? Almost a parallel one at that.

"No, I'm fine. I guess I am just a bit sleepy." Naminé fakes a yawn, stretching and hoping to fool her concerned mother. If this keeps up, she would have to do a lot of lying, at least until she figured things out. But before her mother could respond, a figure at the doorway interrupts the tranquil family.

"Well, aren't you the lazy one Naminé? You were supposed to meet us an hour ago…remember?" The tall sandy blond haired boy stands at the front porch with one hand on his hips, waiting for Naminé to follow him. One thing for sure that didn't change, is that Gippal is still impatient. (A/N: Introducing the first FF character, Gippal! Can you guess who else is coming…?)

Mentally thanking the Al Bhed boy for having perfect timing, Naminé gets up from the table and grabs her art bag.

"Bye Mama, Bye Ain, I'll be home later." Naminé shouts out as she runs out the door, surprising Gippal as he gets dragged out as well.

"Whoa, what's the hurry? It's not like the world is going to end or nothin'"

'Or change again.' The artist sarcastically thinks to herself as she slows down her pace. But there is more that has changed. For one thing, Gippal now has a patch over his eye. 'An eye for an eye?' She contemplates, remembering that her brother's bear received an eye for his missing one.

"What, are all you creative ones so quiet all the time? Don't tell me you're worried about going into the Forbidden Forest?"

"What?!" Naminé looks so shocked with her mouth opened wide Gippal can't help but burst out laughing.

"You forgot all about it didn't you!"

"Cra'c cbahtehk duu silr desa fedr oui Gippal." (translation: She's spending too much time with you Gippal.) The stoic voice comes from the girl with silver hair and red eyes. She is dressed in all black, from her tank top to sandals.

"Ur, pnehk ed uh Tn. P!" (translation: oh, bring it on Dr. P) Paine places down her kiddy video camera and races to the nearest tree and breaks off a medium sized branch. As the two fight, Naminé curiously picks up the camera and rewinds it to the beginning.

'Maybe this could clear up a few things?' At the click, she presses play. In it, everything is just the way things were yesterday, her friends, their conversations, everything! But suddenly a black figure with lustrous amber eyes leaps across the screen, causing the voices to distort and change before finally freezing. Naminé looks up quickly to see that her friends seemed to have paused in real life as well.

"Gippal? Paine?" She glimpses back at the camera and a face with a white robe covering its eyes whispers at her.

"Choose." In utter fear, Naminé drops the camera and it smashes onto the earth. Darkness envelopes the world and the figure as well as the one in the black robe from the forest are standing in front of her once more. She felt nostalgic from being near the two, yet she couldn't place them. The one in the white robe reaches out toward the frightened girl.

"Choose which road to take Naminé. It all starts now, will you take the path covered by shadows of others, or…" The black robed man interrupts the smaller female robed one.

"The road covered in pastels and painted over truths." Naminé glances at the two hands, not sure of which one to take. She hesitates and steps backwards, nearly falling off a cliff which certainly did not exist before. There is no turning back and retreating to the safety of innocence.

"Wait, everything up to today has been nothing but lies? Is that what you are saying?" She didn't want to be deceived, but with everything going on, the truth didn't seem too appealing. The phantoms look at each other and the female speaks again.

"Sleep some more and seek the truth. Remember, though it happens, does not mean it really did." Completely confused, Naminé runs toward the figures but they vanish as well as the blackened world they brought with them. Time renews and Paine drops her weapon and comes rushing toward Naminé who seemingly in frozen in shock.

"Naminé! What's wrong? Snap out of it!" Gippal picks up the smashed video camera and rewinds it, but finds nothing out of the ordinary. "I'll get her back home; you tell the others that we won't be having our field trip."

'No, the answers are in that forest. I have to go, but how? Maybe…But can I?' The artist stares at the camera and with her own rewind button, she stops herself from dropping it, thus it never broke and startled her friends. In a blurred flash, Naminé is standing alone with the video camera in her hands and her friends still fighting.

'I…I did it. But then why do I still remember dropping it?' Shaking off all questions for later, Naminé runs up to Paine and Gippal with a smile on her face.

"Hey guys, let's go meet the others."

* * *

The cloaked female sighs as she looks at a different person inside a strange egg like device. She has to watch over the two children until the time is right.

"It seems Naminé has rediscovered how to use her powers. Are you sure this is what you wanted? Life will not be easy for her if she does."

"It is their predetermined fate to take the road. This little experiment cannot change the future and when this one here wakes up, you will cease to exist. In, fact, already you are failing to actually be. Perhaps you wish for the young witch to fail her quest for the truth?" The cold voice accuses the white robe with a smirk. He would have his fun while this experiment lasted. He places his hand on the girl's shoulder, laughing at the contrast between the two. "A white robe huh. But if you're the light, why offer the shadows?"

"There is always hope, in the darkness as well."

* * *

Juusan: Well, there's chapter two! Sorry for taking so long with it! Well I hoped you liked it.

Mokuba: It was too scary! You should write horror fics!

Juusan: Heh, horror fics scare me too much XX Okay Mokuba, now do the next chapter narrator thing.

Mokuba: Okay…Ahem…What is the identity of the robed figures and the other person in the egg thingy? What secrets lie in the Forbidden Forest? What other Final Fantasy Characters will be in this story? Find out eventually in the next chapter, Erased New Memories!

Juusan: Yay, and for once your soul didn't get stolen… (Mokuba plushie is gone)… or not…


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